About $10k per Foot

The county put out a press release this week, patting itself on the back for the latest odd expenditure. Apparently, some people approaching the Silver Spring Metro station from East-West Highway needed some extra help getting into the station. MoCo provided $400,000 to WMATA to open a gate on the southern portion of the eastern side of the Metro station. Opening that gate means that people don’t have to walk to the the northern side of the station — about 40 feet away.
Interesting to know that the county’s got half a million bucks to throw at this kind of pressing problem. At a time when everyone is concerned about county coffers and wondering which taxes to increase, isn’t there something more deserving than this?! And why does it cost that much to open up a gate that had been locked, and install an farecard entry gate?